Approval of nation’s largest health care merger does not go far enough to protect patients

“While the AMA welcomes the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) requiring Aetna to divest its Medicare Part D drug plan business, we are disappointed that the DOJ did not go further by blocking the CVS-Aetna merger.

“The AMA worked tirelessly to oppose this merger and presented a wealth of expert empirical evidence to convince regulators that the merger would harm patients. We now urge the DOJ and state antitrust enforcers to monitor the post-merger effects of the Aetna acquisition by CVS Health on highly concentrated markets in pharmaceutical benefit management services, health insurance, retail pharmacy, and specialty pharmacy.

“Patients are better served by promoting competitive health care markets. The AMA is committed to ensuring that competition in health care is not compromised. We will continue to examine proposed health care mergers as they arise and take every opportunity to challenge those that are detrimental to the patients we serve.”